Analyses of Definitions of Parody

‘Naqizeh’ (parody) in Old Persian literature was both in serious and humorous forms, and it was not confined to poetry, but has been used in prose, as well. The closest term in English to ‘Naqizeh’ is parody. Parody has different forms; however, such diversity is not suggestive of lacking a thorough agreement on the genre. Based on Bakhtin’s theory of Dialogue, and Genette’s and Barthes’s views, the present article provides a definition of parody in English literature covering most cases. Accordingly, parody can be defined as a deliberate imitation or transformation of a socio-cultural product (including literary and non-literary texts, and discourse in its Bakhtinian broad sense) so that it will recreate its original subject in a playful, not necessarily ironic way.